Abstract
AN INERTIAL navigation system is a complex mechanism. As such, it was never invented; rather it evolved out of the work of many men. Newton gave us the laws of dynamics which enabled us to understand and use the accelerometer and gyroscope. Foucault's work with the gyroscope stimulated much thought and research on uses of the gyro. Anschütz-Kämpfe and Sperry developed, independently, the gyrocompass. Then Schuler showed that the gyrocompass could be used as an accurate directional reference by elimination of the effects of horizontal accelerations. He did this by designing the instrument so that its pendulous element had a period of 84.4 minute's, the same as a pendulum with a length the radius of the earth. Boykow was apparently the first to say that an inertial navigation system could be built, based on double integration of acceleration. Then Reisch implemented the 84-minute pendulum and designed an inertial navigation system for a non-rotating earth. The Peenemünde rocket scientists were responsible for the first inertially guided flight. North American Aviation flew the first Schuler-tuned system. And Draper, who has been active in inertial navigation and its greatest champion from the beginning, provided major improvements in theory and hardware.
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